A Wavelength Tunable DBR Laser Integrated with an Electro-Absorption Modulator by a Combined Method of SAG and QWI

We report a wavelength tunable electro-absorption modulated DBR laser based on a combined method of SAG and QWI. The threshold current is 37mA and the output power at 100mA gain current is 3.5mW. When coupled to a single-mode fiber with a coupling efficiency of 15% ,more than a 20dB extinction ratio is observed over the change of EAM bias from 0 to -2V. The 4.4nm continuous wavelength tuning range covers 6 channels on a 100GHz grid for WDM telecommunications.

Monolithically Integrated Laser Diode and Electroabsorption Modulator with Dual-Waveguide Spot-Size Converter Output

A 1.60μm laser diode and electroabsorption modulator monolithically integrated with a novel dual-waveguide spot-size converter output for low-loss coupling to a cleaved single-mode optical fiber are demonstrated.The devices emit in a single transverse and quasi single longitudinal mode with an SMSR of 25.6dB.These devices exhibit a 3dB modulation bandwidth of 15.0GHz,and modulator DC extinction ratios of 16.2dB.The output beam divergence angles of the spot-size converter in the horizontal and vertical directions are as small as 7.3°×18.0°,respectively,resulting in a 3.0dB coupling loss with a cleaved single-mode optical fiber.

Monolithic Integration of Electro-Absorption Modulators and DFB Lasers by Modified Double Stack Active Layer Approach

Monolithic electro absorption modulated distributed feedback(DFB) lasers are proposed and fabricated by using a modified double stack active layer.The 38mA threshold,9dB extinction ratio (from 0 5V to 3 0V),and about 5mW output power at the 100mA operation current are achieved.Compared with other reported results (only 1 5mW at the same operation current) of the traditional stack active structure,the proposed structure improves the output power of devices.

Optical transmitter module with hybrid integration of DFB laser diode and proton-exchanged LiNbO_(3)modulator chip

In this work,a hybrid integrated optical transmitter module was designed and fabricated.A proton-exchanged Mach–Zehnder lithium niobate(LiNbO_(3))modulator chip was chosen to enhance the output extinction ratio.A fiber was used to adjust the rotation of the polarization direction caused by the optical isolator.The whole optical path structure,including the laser chip,lens,fiber,and modulator chip,was simulated to achieve high optical output efficiency.After a series of process improvements,a module with an output extinction ratio of 34 dB and a bandwidth of 20.5 GHz(from 2 GHz)was obtained.The optical output efficiency of the whole module reached approximately 21%.The link performance of the module was also measured.

Measurement and Characterization of Microwave Interaction between Integrated Distributed Feedback Laser Diode and Electro-Absorption Modulator

Integrated electro-absorption-modulated distributed feedback laser diodes(EMLs)are attracting much interest in optical communications for the advantages of a compact structure,low power consumption,and high-speed modulation.In integrated EML,the microwave interaction between the distributed feedback laser diode(DFB-LD)and the electro-absorption modulator(EAM)has a nonnegligible influence on the modulation performance,especially at the high-frequency region.In this paper,integrated EML was investigated as a three-port network with two electrical inputs and a single optical output,where the scattering matrix of the integrated device was theoretically deduced and experimentally measured.Based on the theoretical model and the measured data,the microwave equivalent circuit model of the integrated device was established,from which the microwave interaction between DFB-LD and EAM was successfully extracted.The results reveal that the microwave interaction within integrated EML contains both the electrical isolation and optical coupling.The electrical isolation is bidirectional while the optical coupling is directional,which aggravates the microwave interaction in the direction from DFB-LD to EAM.

0.6μm CMOS Laser Diode Driver for Optical Access Networks

Using native CMOS technology,EDA tool,and adopting full-custom design methodology,a laser diode driver for the use of STM-1 and STM-4 optical access network,is realized by CSMC-HJ 0.6μm CMOS technology to modulate laser diodes at 155Mb/s (STM-1),622Mb/s (STM-4) with adjustable modulation current from 0 to 50mA for an equivalent 50Ω load.The maximum modulation voltage is over 2.5V pp corresponding to a 3V DC bias for output stage.The time range of rise and fall from 360ps to 471ps is measured from the output voltage pulse.The RMS jitter is no more than 30ps for four bit rates.The power consumption is less than 410mW under a power supply voltage of 5V.According to the experimental results,the laser diode driver achieves the same level as their counterparts worldwide.

Implementation of a DC-10Mb/s 0.5μm CMOS Laser Diode Driver

A DC-10Mb/s laser diode driver,compatible with TTL and CMOS levels,is presented. The optical power corresponding to‘1＇ and ‘0＇ can be set independently with resistors off-chip and stabilized with a closed loop. A novel peak-to- peak optical power monitor and stabilization mechanism is introduced. The circuit, fabricated in a CSMC 0. 5μm mixed signal CMOS process, can provide 120mA maximum drive current and 0. 6dB extinction ration fluctuation over - 20 ＋ 80℃ ,which is independent of input pattern.

A 10 Gb/s laser diode driver in 0.35 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology

This paper discusses the design of a 10 Gb/s laser diode driver implemented in SiGe BiCMOS technology. The laser diode driver is composed of an input buffer, a predriver circuit and an output current switch stage. With the current mode logic （CML） structure, the input buffer and the predriver circuit have the capability of transmission and amplification of high speed data. By employing MOS-HBT cascode structure as the output stage, the laser diode driver exhibits very high speed and efficiency working at the 10 Gb/s data rate. The core circuit is operated under a 3. 3 V supply, while the output stage is operated under 5.5 V for sufficient headroom across the laser diode. The chip occupies a die area of 600 μm × 800μm. Measurements on chip show clear electrical eye diagrams over 10 Gb/s, which can well meet the specifications defined by SDH STM64/SONET OC192 and a 10 Gb/s Ethemet eye mask. Under a 5. 5 V supply voltage, the maximum output swing is 3.0 V with a 50 12 load （the corresponding modulation current is 60 mA）, and the total power dissipation is 660 mW.

Frequency stabilization of a 399-nm laser by modulation transfer spectroscopy in an ytterbium hollow cathode lamp

The modulation transfer spectroscopy in an ytterbium hollow cathode lamp at 399 nm is measured. The error signal for frequency locking is optimized by measuring the dependences of its slope, linewidth and magnitude on various parameters. Under the optimum condition, the laser frequency at 399 nm can be stabilized. The long-term stability of laser frequency is measured by monitoring the fluorescence signal of the ytterbium atomic beam induced by the locked laser. The laser frequency is shown to be tightly locked, and the stabilized laser is successfully applied to the cooling of ytterbium atoms.

Parallel generation of low-correlation wideband complex chaotic signals using CW laser and external-cavity laser with self-phase-modulated injection

A novel scheme for generating optical chaos is proposed and experimentally demonstrated,which supports to simultaneously produce two low-correlation chaotic signals with wideband spectrum and suppressed time-delay-signature(TDS).In the proposed scheme,we use the output of an external-cavity semiconductor laser(ECSL)as the driving signal of a phase modulator to modulate the output of a CW laser.Then the phase-modulated continuous-wave(CW)light is split into two parts,one is injected back into the ECSL that outputs one chaotic signal,while the other part is passed through a dispersion module for generating another chaotic signal simultaneously.The experimental results prove that the proposed scheme has three merits.Firstly,it can improve the bandwidth of ECSL-based chaos by several times,and simultaneously generate another wideband flat-spectrum chaotic signal.Secondly,the undesired TDS characteristics of the simultaneously-generated chaotic signals can be efficiently suppressed to an indistinguishable level within a wide parameter range,as such the complexities of the chaotic signals are considerably high.Thirdly,the correlation coefficient between these two simultaneously-generated chaotic signals is smaller than 0.1.The proposed scheme provides an attractive solution for parallel multiple chaos generation,and shows great potential for multiple channel chaos communications and multiple random bit generations.

35 km amplifier-less four-level pulse amplitude modulation signals enabled by a 23 GHz ultrabroadband directly modulated laser

The 4-level pulse amplitude modulation(PAM4)based on an 23 GHz ultrabroadband directly modulated laser(DML)was proposed.We have experimentally demonstrated that based on intensity modulation and direct detection(IMDD)56 Gbps per wavelength PAM4 signals transferred over 35 km standard single mode fiber(SSMF)without any optical amplification and we have achieved the bit error rate(BER)of the PAM4 transmission was under 2.9×10–4 by using feed forward equalization(FFE).

Flexible control of semiconductor laser with frequency tunable modulation transfer spectroscopy

We introduce a new method of simultaneously implementing frequency stabilization and frequency shift for semiconductor lasers. We name this method the frequency tunable modulation transfer spectroscopy （FTMTS）. To realize a stable output of 780 nm semiconductor laser, an FTMTS optical heterodyne frequency stabilization system is constructed. Before entering into the frequency stabilization system, the probe laser passes through an acousto-optical modulator （AOM） twice in advance to achieve tunable frequency while keeping the light path stable. According to the experimental results, the frequency changes from 120 MHz to 190 MHz after the double-pass AOM, and the intensity of laser entering into the system is greatly changed, but there is almost no change in the error signal of the FTMTS spectrum. Using this signal to lock the laser frequency, we can ensure that the frequency of the laser changes with the amount of AOM shift. Therefore, the magneto-optical trap （MOT）-molasses process can be implemented smoothly.

A 15 Gbps-NRZ, 30 Gbps-PAM4, 120 mA laser diode driver implemented in 0.15-μm GaAs E-mode pHEMT technology

This paper presents the design and testing of a 15 Gbps non-return-to-zero(NRZ),30 Gbps 4-level pulse amplitude modulation(PAM4)configurable laser diode driver(LDD)implemented in 0.15-μm GaAs E-mode pHEMT technology.The driver bandwidth is enhanced by utilizing cross-coupled neutralization capacitors across the output stage.The output transmission-line back-termination,which absorbs signal reflections from the imperfectly matched load,is performed passively with on-chip 50-Ωresistors.The proposed 30 Gbps PAM4 LDD is implemented by combining two 15 Gbps-NRZ LDDs,as the high and low amplification paths,to generate PAM4 output current signal with levels of 0,40,80,and 120 mA when driving 25-Ωlasers.The high and low amplification paths can be used separately or simultaneously as a 15 Gbps-NRZ LDD.The measurement results show clear output eye diagrams at speeds of up to 15 and 30 Gbps for the NRZ and PAM4 drivers,respectively.At a maximum output current of 120 mA,the driver consumes 1.228 W from a single supply voltage of-5.2 V.The proposed driver shows a high current driving capability with a better output power to power dissipation ratio,which makes it suitable for driving high current distributed feedback(DFB)lasers.The chip occupies a total area of 0.7×1.3 mm^(2).

Beyond the 100 Gbaud directly modulated laser for short reach applications

It is very attractive to apply a directly modulated laser(DML)-based intensity-modulation and direct-detection(IM/DD)system in future data centers and 5G fronthaul networks due to the advantages of low cost,low system complexity,and high energy efficiency,which perfectly match the application scenarios of the data centers and 5G fronthaul networks,in which a large number of high-speed optical interconnections are needed.However,as the data traffic in the data centers and 5G fronthaul networks continues to grow exponentially,the future requirements for data rates beyond 100 Gbaud are challenging the existing DML-based IM/DD system,and the main bottleneck is the modulation bandwidth of the DML.In this paper,the data rate demands and technical standards of the data centers and 5G fronthaul networks are reviewed in detail.With the modulation bandwidth requirements,the technical routes and achievements of recent DMLs are reviewed and discussed.In this way,the prospects,challenges,and future development of DMLs in the applications of future data centers and 5G fronthaul networks are comprehensively explored.

Stochastic resonance in a single-mode laser driven by frequency modulated signal and coloured noises

By adding frequency modulated signals to the intensity equation of gain noise model of the single-mode laser driven by two coloured noises which are correlated, this paper uses the linear approximation method to calculate the power spectrum and signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） of the laser intensity. The results show that the SNR appears typical stochastic resonance with the variation of intensity of the pump noise and quantum noise. As the amplitude of a modulated signal has effects on the SNR, it shows suppression, monotone increasing, stochastic resonance, and multiple stochastic resonance with the variation of the frequency of a carrier signal and modulated signal.

Boron quantum dots all-optical modulator based on efficient photothermal effect

All-optical devices without external electronic components have drawn extraordinary attentions in all-optical communication.In this work,boron quantum dots(BQDs)were synthesized by a facile liquid-phase exfoliation method.The as-prepared BQDs showed good structural homogeneity and crystallinity,broadband optical absorption as well as excellent photothermal properties.Femtosecond-resolved transient absorption further revealed the short carrier relaxation time of BQDs.Inspired by the outstanding photothermal properties and ultrafast carrier dynamic of BQDs,we fabricated BQDsbased all-optical modulator.The phase shift with a slope efficiency of 0.032π/m W and response time of 0.97 ms can be achieved.The modulator was used in laser resonance cavity to achieve all-optical actively Q-switched laser operation with control repetition rate.This prototypical BQDs-based all-optical modulator shows a great potential to be applied in all-optical information processing and communication.

Stochastic Resonance in Linear Region of a Single-Mode Laser: Effects of Amplitude Modulation of Signal

A single-mode laser noise model driven by quadratic colored pump noise and amplitude modulation signal is proposed. The real and imaginary parts of the pump noise are assumed to be cross-correlation. The effect of cross- correlation of noise and amplitude modulation of signal on laser statistical properties is studied by using the linearized approximation. The analytic expression of signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） is calculated. It is found that the phenomena of stochastic resonance （SR） respectively exist in the curves of the SNR versus the noise cross-correlation coefficient λ and the SNR versus the pump parameter a, as well as the SNR versus the signal frequency ω in our model. It is shown that there are three different typies of SR in the model： the conventional form of SR, the SR in the broad sense, and the bona fide SR.

Mid-infrared lightly Er^(3+)-doped CaF_(2)laser under acousto–optical modulation

A 1.7-at.%Er:CaF_(2)crystal was synthesized by temperature gradient method.The Er:CaF_(2)crystal was applied in acousto-optically Q-switched laser at mid-infrared region for the first time.Using a Te O_(2)-based crystal as Q-switcher,we obtained a laser diode(LD)end-pumped Er:CaF_(2)laser with the highest single pulse energy up to 0.49 mJ and maximum peak power of 0.56 kW under 6.34-W absorbed pump power.The implication of these results is that the low-doped Er:CaF_(2)crystal exhibits promising optical properties in solid-state lasers.

Improving thermal efficiency and stability of laser welding process for magnesium alloy by combining power modulation and subatmospheric pressure environment

The laser welding(LW)process of highly reflective materials presents low thermal efficiency and poor stability.To solve the problem,the effects of subatmospheric environment on LW process,technological parameters in subatmospheric environment on weld formation and welding with sinusoidal modulation of laser power on the stability of LW process in subatmospheric environment were explored.The AZ31magnesium(Mg)alloy was used as the test materials.The test result revealed that the weld penetration in subatmospheric environment can increase by more than ten times compared with that under normal pressure.After the keyhole depth greatly rises,significantly periodic local bulge is observed on the backwall surface of the keyhole and the position of the bulge shifts along the direction of the keyhole depth.Eventually,the hump-shaped surface morphology of the welded seam is formed;moreover,the weld width in local zones in the lower part of the welded seam remarkably grows.During LW in subatmospheric environment,the weld penetration can be further greatly increased through power modulation.Besides,power modulation can inhibit the occurrence of bulges in local zones on the backwall of the keyhole during LW in subatmospheric environment,thus further curbing the significant growth of the weld widths of hump-shaped welding beads and local zones in the lower part of welded seams.Finally,the mechanism of synchronously improving the thermal efficiency and stability of LW process of highly reflective materials through power modulation in subatmospheric environment was illustrated.This was conducted according to theoretical analysis of recoil pressure and observation results of dynamic behaviors of laser induced plasma clouds and keyholes in the molten pool through high speed photography.

Optical modulation of repaired damage site on fused silica produced by CO2 laser rapid ablation mitigation

CO2 laser rapid ablation mitigation(RAM)of fused silica has been used in high-power laser systems owing to its advantages of high efficiency,and ease of implementing batch and automated repairing.In order to study the effect of repaired morphology of RAM on laser modulation and to improve laser damage threshold of optics,an finite element method(FEM)mathematical model of 351 nm laser irradiating fused silica optics is developed based on Maxwell electromagnetic field equations,to explore the 3D near-field light intensity distribution inside optics with repaired site on its surface.The influences of the cone angle and the size of the repaired site on incident laser modulation are studied as well.The results have shown that for the repaired site with a cone angle of 73.3°,the light intensity distribution has obvious three-dimensional characteristics.The relative light intensity on z-section has a circularly distribution,and the radius of the annular intensification zone increases with the decrease of z.While the distribution of maximum relative light intensity on y-section is parabolical with the increase of y.As the cone angle of the repaired site decreases,the effect of the repaired surface on light modulation becomes stronger,leading to a weak resistance to laser damage.Moreover,the large size repaired site would also reduce the laser damage threshold.Therefore,a repaired site with a larger cone angle and smaller size is preferred in practical CO2 laser repairing of surface damage.This work will provide theoretical guidance for the design of repaired surface topography,as well as the improvement of RAM process.